Automatic starter and lighter for automobiles.



W. G. WORDINGH-AM. AUTOMATIC STARTER AND LIGHTER FOR AUTOMOBILES).

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 8, 1911. I

' Patented July 2, 1912.

2/ 67 f 4%MW W.. G. WORDINGHAMQ AUTOMATIC STARTER AND LIGHTER FORAUTOMOBILES.

APPLIUATION FILED NOV. 8, 1911.

Patented July 2, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2."

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. WORDINIGHAM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGINOR TO WORDY SELFSTARTER 00., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

' AUTOMATIC srnnrnn Ann meznrnn FOR 'nu'romonrnns.

1,031,308, Specification of Letters Patent. P t t d July 2,1912,Application filed. November 8, 19-11. swarm. 659,082.

To all whom it may concerns struction but I have shown them provided .Beitknownthat I, WILLIAM G. WoRmNowith forked burners 9 such as arecommonly HArnacitizen of the United States, residing employed inacetylene lamps in use at the at Chicago, in the county ofOook and Statepresent time. I a t I of Illinois, have invented. certain new andInstead of being supplied with acetylene 60. useful Improvements inAutomatic Starters enerators to generate acetylene gas forthe andLighters for Automobiles, of WhlCh the llimps many automobilesareequipped with following is'aspecification. a storage tank inwhich aquantity of acety- My present invention relates in general to lene gasis stored under pressure. Such a improvements in automobilesand moreparpressure tank is shown on the drawin s at 65 ticularly to a system bymeans of which the 11. ()rd-inarily this tank. is connecte diengine maybe started without cranking and rectly with the lamps, the flow of gasto the lamps may be lighted by the driver with which is controlled by anordinary shut off out'leavin his seat; core 12. My 'resent inventionaims to utij Qne oft e principal objects of the invenlize the gas inthis tank not only for 7 tion is the provision of a system of the genlighting purposes but for starting the engine eral character indicatedwhich will be en and to this endI have connected the tank by tirely:controlled -by the manipulation of a a pipe 13 tothe central branch 14of a valve 1 sin 1e lever, the system being so constructed casing 15having also a pair of outlet an a r n ed that when the lever is movedbranches 16. and 17 which are connected re? 7 in one direction gas willbe turned on to t e specti-vel with the lamps and the engine lamps and aspar will be produced to ignlte manifold the amp burners and when.turned 1n the op- A plug valve 19 is positioned in the valve posite'direction gas Will be admi t 9 h casing at the juncture of the. assag esleadengine cylinders and the sparking withm in to the branches 14, l6and 17 and this iheicylinders W111 be RP thus ermltvalve is providedwith a passageway 21', as ;ing the cylinders to fill w1th as so t at theshown in Fig. 2, adapted when the operatangine may be started when eslrd by 81111- ing handle 22 connected to the end of the lhturnmg on thespark. plug by a screw fastening '23 is turned in y ve W111 bestunflelfstood y one direction or the other to establish come tothe n g ep o when munication between the intake branch 14 :onsidered inconnection with the a'ceomand one or the other of the outlet branchesranym'g drawings llustratmg one practical 16. d 17, Th b h 17 i onne t dorm or the mventlonb' through the pi )e 2st with the lamps 8 andReferring to the drawingsFigure 1 is a when the handle 22 is turned tothe right, iagrammatic view of a system embodying viewing Fig. 1, itwill be obvious that com- 1y invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinalSecmunication will be established between the tonal view of thecontrolling device; and pipes 13 and 24 through the valve casing so ig.3 is a transvere sectional view taken that gas will be supplied to thelamps from rough the center of the device shown in the supply tank .11.The controlling device, ig. 2. consisting of the valve casing 15 and itsOn the drawings,'5 represents the cylinaccessories, is pret'erablymounted upon the are of an explosive engine of any preferred dashboard25 of theautomobile where it will 1 me or construction, the engine inthe presbe readily accessible to the driver. In order it instance beingof a 4.-cylinder type, but that the driver may not be obliged to leavewill be apparent as" the invention is more hisseat in lighting the lampsand, furtherllly understood. that any number of cylihmore, to insure.against explosions which :rs may be employed and that theparticusometimes occur when the "as is turned on r type or character ofte explosive engine to the lamps for some time before the flameimmaterial so far as the present invention or spark is applied I haveprovided a-lightconcerned. The cylinders receivet eir. ex; ingcircuitwhich produces a continuous )sive mixture through the manifol 6from spark or a series pf sparks adjacent the lamp supply pi e 7:connected with a carhureter burners rior to the admission and during'theusual and well known manner. The the initi admission of t-he gasthereto.' The 'nps 8' may be of any preferred type orconsparking;system. comprisesa (.Oll 26- 916 usual on but insulated from the disk33.

construction, the secondary circuit 27 of which runs through .the lampsand is provided with sparking terminals 28 located adjacent the forkedburners 9 and the primary circuit energized from the battery 29. Onewire 31 of the primary circuitis connected with the terminal 32 carriedby the disk 33 preferably formed integral with the valve casing 15. Theterminal 32 is insulated trom the disk by suitable insulationstrips 34and 35 and the terminalstud is normally heldin the elevated positionshown in l? 3 by the coil expansion spring 36. The upper end of the studis rounded as shown and normally extends up sufiicient-ly into the pathof the operating lever 22 so that when said lever is moved across thetop of the stud contact is-made which closes the primary circuit andcauses a prolonged and continuous sparking at the spark points of thesecondary circuit. An abutment or pin 37 limits the movement of theoperating lever to a position where the passageway 21 in the valve is infull communication with the branch 14 and the branch 17.

' When it is desired to turn on the lights the operating lever 22 ismoved slowly to ward the right, viewing Fig.1. The handle will contactwith the rounded upper end of the stud 32'before communication isestablished between the pipes 13 and 24 and a continuous spark will beproduced in the lamps beginning prior to the admission of gas theretoand continuing until the gas is nearly fully turned on. The lamps willthus be lighted as soon as the gas begins to flow thereto and anypossibility of an accumulation of gas in the lamps which might result inan explosion is precluded. When the lever is thrown to full positionagainst the stud 37 it will have passed beyond the terminal stud 32 andwhile the lamps are burning no sparking will take place at the terminals28 since the primary circuit is opened as soon as the handle passesbeyond the terminal stud The branch 16 of the valve casing is connectedwith the manifold of the engine cylinders by a pipe 30 so that whentheoperating handle 22 is moved to the left, viewing Fig. 1, communication:will be established between the supply pipe 13 leading from the gas tankand the pipe 30, thereby permitting the gas to flow directly to themanifold 6 and into the engine cylinders. The sparking magneto 38 isconnected with the spark plugs of the cylinders in the usual way, butfrom one of the armature brushes I haverun a connecting wire '39 to theterminal 41 mounted It will be evident that when the operating handle 22is thrown into contact with the terminal 41 the magneto will begrounded'through the machine body and the sparking in the cylinders willbe stopped. V-hen it is desired to shut down the engine the gasolene isshut ofi in the usual manner and the lever When depending upon theposition of thepiston's therein. One at least will contain the gas undercompression and when the spark is turned on in the usual manner anexplosion will occur in this cylinder which Willstart the enginewhereupon explosions will follow consecutively in the other cylinders tospeed up the engine sufiiciently, to draw the mixture from thecarbureter.

In order that a sufficient quantity of gas may be supplied to promulgateseries of explosions in the cylinders I have provided an auxiliarystorage chamber or tank 42 which is interposed in the pipe 30. Thischamber will be filled when gas is admitted from the main tank 11 to thecylinders and, when the engine begins to move u on startin theaccumulated gas in the ,c iambe'r willie:

drawn into the c li'ndars to speed up the engine. It will e understoodthat comnmaication is established between the supply pipe 13 and thepipe 30 leading to the cylinders only when t e engine is dying down andthat after the engine is stopped the lever is thrown back to the normalposition shown in Figs. 1 and 2, shutting offthc gas supply or, ifdesired, it may be thrown to lighting position so that the lamps can,For the purpose of regu-v be. left burning. lating the amount of gaswhich will be permitted to How from the tank 11 to the lamps and'to thecylinders I have provided adjusting valves 4:3 and 44 in each end of thevalve casing which may be threaded into or out of the casing to reduceor enlarge, as desired, the passageways leading to the branches 16 and.17.

It is believed that my invention will be understood from the foregoingwithout further description and it will be manifest that I have prmideda system in which the engine can be started by simply turning on thespark in the usual manner and by means of which the lamps can be lightedor eXtinguished at will, all of these operations being emit-rolled froma single operating lever positioned within easy reach of the driver.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my inventionit will be obvious that various changes in the structural details of theform illustrated may be resorted to without departing from 1,031,308 I ia I the spirit of the inventlon' or sacrificing any use when such pointof use 1s 1n communiof the material advantages thereof. cation with thegas supply, and for de- I claim: energizing the sparking device at theother 1. Means for controlling the suppl of point of use when sai pointof use is in gas to points of use and for contro ling communicationwiththe gas supply, sub- 35 sparking at such points of use, including astantially as described.- a valve casing havmg an inlet adapted for 3.The combination with a gas supply,

connection with a gas supply, two outlets points of use in communicationwith the gas adapted for connection -with different supply, each pointof use having a sparkpoints of use, a turningplug controlling theingdevice, and an electric circuit for each 40 inlet and outlets, acrank arm carried by the sparking device, of a single controller forturning plug and constituting a switch establishin communication betweenthe gas member, and two insulated terminals carsupply and one point ofuse and cutting off ried by the casing and in thepath of thecommunication between 'the gas supply and switch member, one terminalbeing disposed the other point of use, said controller hav- -4 forcontact by the switch member when one mg a switch member, and insulatedterof the outlets is 0pen,and the other terminals, one of the terminalsand the switchminal being disposedv for engagement bybeing Included inone of the electric circuits, the switch arm before and during themiwhereby such circuit may be closed when tial opening only ofthe otheroutlet, subthe switch is'in engagement with said ter- 50 stantially asand for. the purpose described. minal, and'a shunt connection betweenthe 2. The combmatlon with a gas supply, other terminal and the otherelectric circuit,

I points of utsejh communication with the gas whereby said otherelectric circuit may be supply, each{ point of use having a sparkshuntedfrom its sparking device when the in" device, ofa s1ngle controller forestabswitch is in engagement with said terminal. 55

lis hing communication between the as n supply and one point of use andc iit- WORDINGHAM' ting ofl" communication between the gas sup-Witnesses:

ply and the other point of use, and for ener- A; G. FROST, gizing thesparking device at one point of V J. H. JACOBS.

Copies of this uatent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe "Commissioner of Patents,

, Washington, D. G.

